American Idol 6, March 7: The Yo Factor

It’s time to decide which six girls will be advancing to the top 12. Ryan notes that we’re currently Paula-less. Paula’s babysitter apparently fell asleep on the job. Ryan has a weird turtleneck/suit jacket combo going on. He introduces the girls, then reminds us that tomorrow we’ll find out who’s in the top 12, as well as what the super top-secret “groundbreaking Idol project” is. Paula has made it on time, Simon says she was under the desk. Randy takes it a step farther and everyone yells that this is a family show.

Jordin is starting us off tonight. The theme last night was “things people don’t know about me,” but tonight it’s “what I wanted to be when I was a kid.” Maybe they changed it so Antonella wouldn’t have to say, “Something most people don’t know about me is that sometimes I take my clothes off in front of cameras.” Jordin says that football is a huge part of her life (not surprising, considering who her dad is), and at one point she actually wanted to play, but singing won out.

Jordin sings Pat Benatar’s “Heartbreaker.” I’m not sure I would have chosen this song if I were her. It’s a little fast for her, too. But she eventually wrestles it to the ground, rocking out like Gina and giving quite a show. I love her, so I don’t even care what the judges have to say about her.

Randy: The girls put on a completely different show than the guys. This wasn’t Jordin’s best performance, but it was still “dope” and better than the guys’ stuff last night.

Paula: Jordin has a lot of energy and is better every week. She’ll be here for a long time.

Simon: He’s not quite as enthusiastic; it was manic and a little shrieky in the middle. But Jordin did well and shows personality, and she’ll be here next week. Still, it wasn’t her best performance.

Ryan asks Jordin how excited she is. She says she can hardly contain herself. She crouches again to be Ryan’s height. Everyone laughs and she innocently says, “What?” Hee.

Gina and Sabrina are in the red room with Ryan, who reminds us that Carrie Underwood will stop by tomorrow night. He says that the girls have been getting a lot of praise as a group. Gina thinks that’s a good thing; they feed off of each other’s energy and talent. Sabrina says everyone’s nervous because they all know what’s at stake, but they’re going to have fun and leave everything up to God and America.

Sabrina’s up next, and she used to want to be Katie Couric. She hosted a TV show in school, but she’s glad she’s with singing now because she’s not the next Ryan Seacrest.

Sabrina sings En Vogue’s “Don’t Let Go,” and she sounds a little like Whitney Houston at the beginning. She has some trouble with the song and gets sharp and shouty. I really like Sabrina, but I think her lack of TV exposure might ultimately hurt her. She was so strong in the first week, but she hasn’t been able to hold onto that.

Randy: Not his favorite performance of hers, but it was still good. She picks good songs, but he would have liked something with more melody.

Paula: Sabrina can obviously sing and has a gorgeous voice.

Simon: She’s a great singer, but her performance didn’t have the same emotion as her competitors, namely LaKisha (now with a capital K!), Melinda, and Stephanie. It reminded him of a hotel resort performance. Sabrina needs to inject personality because her voice will only take her so far. This was a little too mechanical.

Ryan asks if Sabrina deserves to be in the top 12. The judges all say yes. I agree, but she needs to work a little harder.

Antonella is next. She’s played the violin since she was five, but she hasn’t played as much in college. She does teach lessons when she’s home during the summer.

Having completely ignored the unspoken rule about not singing current popular songs, Antonella butchers Corinne Bailey Ray’s “Put Your Records On.” Thanks, Antonella. I really liked that song. Her runs sound good, but that’s about it. She doesn’t have the sweetness in her tone that Corinne Bailey Ray does, so it doesn’t work for me.

Randy: It was a pretty good song choice and had a nice ending, but it was pitchy in the middle. He’s not sure Antonella believes herself. Just an okay performance.

Paula: It was the right song choice and in her range, but the bottom notes were trouble.

Simon: After a long pause, Simon says Antonella has gone as far as she can go. (Please.) She’s surrounded by a lot of talented girls, and he doesn’t know how much more she can do because her voice probably won’t get any better. Simon becomes the first person to mention the media backlash, praising Antonella for the way she’s handled everything. This wasn’t her worst performance, but he wishes she could sing better.

Ryan asks if Antonella feels like she deserves to be in the final 12. She says no, giving us all a free pass to vote for her. Just kidding! She says yes, and she wishes she weren’t compared to anyone else. Then stop singing current songs. Antonella says they’re all different and unique. Simon says no one’s being critical for the sake of being critical. Randy adds that it’s a singing competition. Paula shushes everyone.

Up next is Haley, who says she was a gymnast from the ages of five to 15. Then her body started giving out and she had to quit. She started singing and realized that it was what she really loved.

Haley sings Faith Hill’s “If My Heart Had Wings.” It’s much better than last week, but still not as good as what we’ve heard from a lot of the other girls in the competition. Her voice isn’t big enough for this song. It’s a shame, because she does have a nice voice, but I don’t see her going much farther than this.

Randy: Very interesting song choice at this point in the competition, but this is who Haley is, apparently. It wasn’t that exciting and didn’t have pizzazz, “no, like, yo.” I need a Randy-to-English dictionary.